There is no cardinal who does not aspire to the papacy.
—Stendahl—
- When we think of it, there is something truly remarkable in fact that practically all human beings want to be better than they are. what a hopeful reading of the human race—four billion people, all eager to improve themselves! For many of the humans on earth, self-improvement has an economic basis—to be able to eat two or three times each day, perhaps, rather than once. We are fortunate to be able to understand improvement in a moral and spiritual sense. Increases income or possessions cannot truly augment us; our real growth is inward.
However we understand our spiritual selves, most of us agree on how to foster them: through peace, silence, and beauty, in meditation and in what some of us call prayer. Just as every bud aspires to be a flower, and as the flower holds the secret of the fruit, so we enfold the beauty of our spirits. If we nourish the spirit, we can grow to be our better selves. If we allow nothing to hamper its growth, our spirit will unfold.
I shall set my eyes on the clear path toward my spiritual unfolding.